People wearing Roman centurion costumes lay a wreath in front of the Julius Ceasar statue for the Ides of March in Rome is 2007.

People wearing Roman centurion costumes lay a wreath in front of the Julius Ceasar statue for the Ides of March in Rome is 2007. (GREGORIO BORGIA / AP FIle Photo)

Shakespeare provides clue about what could happen if nation suspects tyranny in increasingly powerful leader

A brash and triumphant politician with a god-like self-image unexpectedly wins over large segments of the populace, increasing his power and influence — but even some of his closest associates and allies consider him such a threat to the state and its ideals that they consider every possible strategy to stop him in his tracks.

In his play "Julius Caesar," William Shakespeare gives Cassius the power of prophesy: "How many ages hence will this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown." And so it goes.

What's a nation to do if it suspects budding tyranny in an increasingly powerful leader? The conspirators in 44 B.C. famously answered that question with tyrannicide, which led to their own undoing. Thanks to Marc Antony, they had some trouble controlling the news cycle and getting their message of Caesar's tyranny to stick. And after all, they did assassinate the guy. Then they paid the price.

In 1864, three brothers from the prominent Booth theatrical family played principal characters in "Julius Caesar" at the Winter Garden in New York City. Just five months later, one of the brothers, John Wilkes Booth, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. As he jumped to the stage, Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannis," ("Thus always to tyrants"), words attributed to the historic Brutus at Caesar's assassination.

Were the conspirators right to define Caesar as a tyrant, to kill him, to remove him from power? This debate has fulminated in the intervening centuries, particularly during the late 1590s when Shakespeare wrote his play of the same title. Indeed, there were multiple plays and political writings weighing in on the subject of Caesar's assassination in the latter half of the 16th Century.

Shakespeare must have had to walk quite a tightrope in dramatizing such a response to perceived tyranny in what may have been the opening play of the brand new Globe Theatre in 1599. In the same year, Shakespeare explored the legitimacy of leadership in both "Henry V" and "Hamlet," the latter a revenge tragedy that ends with the killing of a king.

England was a country with its own simmering questions of legitimacy of leadership — Elizabeth I was of questionable legitimacy as the child of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Wisely, Shakespeare engineered his play to explore and ask questions rather than to answer them. His plays illuminate humanity, and in this play, politics are contextual to the broader nature of being human.

In 1599, Elizabeth I had been on the throne for 40 years and, though also celebrated and a patron of Shakespeare's theatre company, she had grown "tyrannical" in the view of some. A plot by the Earl of Essex to unseat her was just a few years away and drew Shakespeare into its web.

Seeking to sway public opinion, the conspirators visited the Lord Chamberlain's Men at the Globe to ask them to perform a play that featured the deposing of an English monarch, Richard II. Shakespeare's company reluctantly agreed and was paid a higher fee than usual, perhaps as recompense for the political risk. Given that the Lord Chamberlain's Men entertained her at court on the eve of Essex's execution, it seems no lasting harm was done to Shakespeare's relationship with the queen. This time, history repeated itself in the deaths of the conspirators.

Shakespeare died on his birthday on April 23, 1616. In this our 25th anniversary season and in the year we mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's passing, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival will produce "Julius Caesar." As our team prepares the production of this vivid, superb play, the politics of our time seem in some ways to reflect Cassius' point about the cyclical nature of politics and power. So often, the past is prologue.

"Julius Caesar" is arguably Shakespeare's first great tragedy. Unlike documentaries, plays are art objects made of metaphor. Shakespeare wrote a play in Renaissance England, set in ancient Rome, that will be produced and that resonates vibrantly in America in 2016.

Any production of a Shakespeare play today ideally meets in the magical space between these different eras in human history, including ours. Hamlet asks that the theater "hold the mirror up to nature." Our production aims to do so in this momentous and tumultuous year, and to ask the questions the play asks, of our time, of Shakespeare's time, of Caesar's time, of all time.

Patrick Mulcahy is producing artistic director of Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, which is hosted by DeSales University.